Sonoma Lake and Reports

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Tuesday, Mar 19
Hi: 69 ° F
Lo: 45 ° F
Today
Partly Sunny
Precip: 0%
Tonight
Mostly Clear
Precip: 0%

Saturday, November 6th, 2021

  • Water Temp: 60

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the main lake areas and caught close to 20 fish. Mostly smallmouth bass using a medium running crank bait, jig and plastics down to 20’. Most of the fish came on rocky banks. Best fish was close to a 3 lb smallmouth caught on a jig. Lots of bait in the water. Water clarity was 1’-3’ depending on the area.

    Tips: Rocky banks down to 20’. Work slow moving baits on the bottom on the rocks.
    Run parallel to the bank with a crank bait for better success.

Thursday, February 27th, 2020

  • Water Temp: 52-58

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out on Monday the 24th and Tuesday the 25th.

    Monday ended up with 20 fish. The biggest going around 2.5 pounds. Caught 9 on a jerkbait, one on small swimbait and 10 on a jig. The jerkbait fish were suspended fish near brush and large submerged rocks. The jig fish were in 30-40 feet of water on points. Was a good constant wind all day from all directions.

    Tuesday got 25 fish. Nothing of size to note. 10 more on the jerkbait and 14 on a brown zoom trick work on a shakey head. Got one more on a crankbait early in the day. After exploring i went back to where the jig fish were mostly yesterday and they were gone. Overnight they disappeared. The warm weather may have moved them shallower. I found the fish on the shakey head between 10 and 25 feet. I did get a few tossing it in a few feet of water near trees which were leaning in the water. Wind today was non-existent.

    This lake is ahead of the other larger lakes in the area. Fish are mostly deep but seem to be heading shallow to feed. Caught 17 smallmouth total for both days. The smallies were all over the jerkbait.

    Tips: Jig fish liked a slow drag and pause 3-4 seconds every foot or so. Jerkbait fish liked erratic action and 5 second or so pause after a series of one, two and three jerks.

Thursday, November 21st, 2019

  • Report: To all club members
    Thu 2019-11-21 15:15
    It is with great sadness to let you all know of the death of BILL SCOTT husband of Stephanie Scott. Owner of:
    Gus’s Fishing Tackle
    3710-Balboa St.
    San Francisco, Ca
    94121.
    Gus’ has been an institution in the fishing community forever.
    Sent from my iPhone

Monday, April 1st, 2019

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    Water Temp: 50-63

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: 3-30-2019
    Fished Lake Sonoma at least once per week since February. Still a mud puddle for most of the lake with heavy debris in many coves. Main creek entrances are the clearest. Water temp on both Yorty and Dry creek side up river is high 50's. Picked up 1 or 2 early bass on jerk or chatter baits along the banks in the afernoons each time out. Waiting for the weather to warm and fish to move up. On Saturday, 3-10-19, my son and i finally found them up near the Yorty Creek day use area. Water temp 61-63. Still muddy, but fish were up in the brush and shallow along banks. Flipping bright jigs, shallow cranks and drop shots into shallow creek arms. Weather was mixed sun, but pushing 70 degrees in the afternoon. Since we fish Lake Sonoma exclusively and I don't see many reports I thought i share my experience with anyone wanting to give this lake a try.

    Tips: Spoke with quite a few other anglers. Those doing well have been fishing suspended bass in 40' plus water. I don't enjoy this type of fishing so I stubbornly stick to shallow target fishing. I added this since drop shotting and dragging swim baits deep has been the most successful method from what I have seen.

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

  • Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Mark you calendars for the annual Redwood Empire Bass Club open tournament to be held on December 8th at Lake Sonoma. Blast off at safe light and weigh in begins at 3:00. Entry fee is $100 per team which includes big fish option. Sign up in advance by downloading the entry form at www.rebc.net or enter the day of the event. See you there.

Thursday, May 31st, 2018

  • Water Temp: 68-71

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I Fished the warm springs arm mid lake. It was extremely windy and never really let up. The normal fish producing spots were not as productive as in recent weeks. The fish were scattered in 10-20 feet of water. Most fish were caught on brown finesse baits (drop shot and shakey heads), a few more on jigs and under-spins.

    Tips: Stay in contact with the bottom. Find Chunk rock in coves and points. Keep moving since fish are scattered..

Friday, December 8th, 2017

  • Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Got on the water at daybreak! Brrrr!! Cold! Beautiful sunrise as well. Headed out to a main lake cove not far from the ramp. Immediately caught a fish on topwater. Wow! They still are biting on top and I'm thinking that is history! Wrong!! Move down the bank and get a HUGE explosion, but the fish missed it. Kept moving and that bite died. Started fishing slower and deeper and thats where the better fish are. Caught a few deep, then went back to topwater in the afternoon. A few missed fish doing that. Moved over to the bridge pilings for a few darthead fish and called it a day. Fun day!

    Tips: Dress warm! Topwater bite is there if you can find it! Take your pick, deep fish or shallow. Deep fish are better quality, but topwater is a big fish technique as well.

Monday, December 4th, 2017

  • Water Temp: 58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Started out around 8am. Started fishing shallow with no success. Moved out to deeper trees, approx 40 to 50ft. Started catching Quality fish deep on texas rigged plastics. Lost a few also that wrapped me up in the limbs. Got to winch them toads out fast or say goodbye. Tip! Use a fast reel like 7 to 1 or higher. Also use heavy line like 20lb flouro. Late in the afternoon, look for shade areas and DO NOT be afraid to throw a topwater! You might be pleasantly surprised! KaBOOM! Fish on! Dress warm in the am, then start shedding layers in the afternoon. Spoons will work as well, but be aware of the heavy cover down there as they will take your spoons fast! LOL!!

Monday, November 13th, 2017

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Redwood Empire Bass Club will holding their annual open tournament on Saturday, December 16th. $100 entry fee per team includes big fish option. Payback will be 1 in 5. 100% payback for big fish option. For more information and entry form check out our website at www.REBC.net.
    Check in at 5:30 a.m. Blast off at safe light. Weigh in starts at 3:00.

Sunday, October 29th, 2017

  • Water Temp: 61-63

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: On the water at 7am with HEAVY fog. Stayed around launch until fog started to lift. Spook caught a couple on rocky points over 25 plus feet of water. Kept working my way to cherry with the A-RIG, Spook and under spin and caught a few more. Fished until 2pm when the wind picked up.

    Tips: I caught around 12 fish, all of them were smallmouth with 1 around 3 1/2 . Never really saw any bait balls with fish on them. I lived welled my fish to get the best 5, and the well had 20 or more 1 inch dead bait fish in it with a couple craw claws at the end of the day.

Thursday, October 26th, 2017

  • Water Temp: 64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Got on the water at 11am. Beautiful day with flat calm conditions. Fished main lake coves with vixens and poppers. Found the fish to be schooled up and very aggressive. Actually caught two smallies at once! Fun day with around 20 keepers up to 3lbs. Missed a couple others that were bigger, but hey thats fishing! Also tried some deeper action and caught a few that were around 20 ft on the dropshot! Better bite though on topwater! Off the water at 3pm.

    Tips: Look for surface activity and go have a ball. Once you find them, stay in the area. Basically stayed in two coves all day. Shade is KEY!

Sunday, June 11th, 2017

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    Water Temp: 65-66

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Hit the water a little after 5:30 am and ran down the main lake. Wind was blowing 10-20 all day. Tried several top water baits for the first hour, but nothing. Partner was catching a few on a dropshot around the trees. As the day progressed we caught most of our fish using plastics in the 10' range. Tried reaction baits throughout the day and finally caught a 3.4 lb largemouth using a crankbait. We used a variety of plastics from dropshot, beavers, and brush hogs. Best fish was a 4.5 and best 5 for about 16lbs. Not too bad of a day, but very windy.

    Tips: Plastics around the wood from shore out to 20'. Lighter colors worked better.

Wednesday, December 28th, 2016

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    Water Temp: 51-52

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Headed out for some mid-week fishing this holiday week. Fished mostly on the main lake and in the Warm Springs area. Bite was slow all day, but we caught about 10 bass to 3 lbs. Some nice smallmouth and a few largemouth. We caugh on a variety of baits including a shakey head, drop shot, and jigs. Colors ranged from brown, green pumpkin and black/blue.

    Tips: Winter time at Sonoma typically means sticking to the main lake areas. Look for rocks with sun. Depth range from 10'-25'. Dress in layers. Watch out for floating logs.

Saturday, December 10th, 2016

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    Water Temp: 55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The Redwood Empire Bass Club held their annual open tournament on Saturday. A field of 19 boats braved the rainy day for this years event. The warm wet morning and colder afternoon made the conditions tough for everyone. It only took 13.73 for first place and the big fish for the day was only 4.01. Fish were caught on a variety of baits including crankbaits, jigs and plastics. Most teams brought in a limit.

    Check back next year for our annual open tournament. More information is available at www.rebc.net.
    New members are always welcome. We meet the 2nd Wednesday each month in Santa Rosa. Check the website for time and location.

Wednesday, December 7th, 2016

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The Redwood Empire Bass Club will holding their annual open tournament this Saturday 12/10 at Lake Sonoma. Entry fee is $100 per boat which includes $20 for big fish prize. Entry forms available at www.rebc.net or show up on Saturday. Check in starts at 5:30 a.m. Blast off at safe light and weighin starts at 3:00. Get your buddy and come on out and join the fun.
    See you there.

    Tips: Water level is up and still clear. Great conditions for this great annual event. Water temp in the low 50's.

Sunday, June 7th, 2015

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    Water Temp: 71

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Got to the lake at first light and headed over to Warm Springs. Started with a spook and started catching bass right away. Top water bite lasted until the sun hit the water, then switched to a jig on my Dobyns DX795. Caught a couple small keepers. Had small limit by 7:00 then bounced around until noon and called it a day.

    Tips: Get out early for some great top water action.

Friday, April 24th, 2015

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Thursday evening and Friday morning in very windy conditions that made it difficult to fish. Caught half a dozen bass to two pounds. Best lures were shaky head and worm, and jigs. Lost a big fish on a jig. Bass have pulled away from the bank and seem to be in 5' to 15' of water.
    City: Novato

    Tips: I tried everything - no particular pattern or locations.

Thursday, August 28th, 2014

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    Water Temp: 75-78

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished small side during morning hours prior to work. Threw spinnerbait shallow along long points and trees. Caught 10 fish, biggest about 3 lbs. When the fog cleared, the bite pretty much shut down. A few boats in the parking lot but I was the only boat fishing the small side.
    City: Windsor

    Tips: Reaction baits in the morning.

Saturday, February 1st, 2014

  • Water Temp: 49-50

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched around 8am and headed to the southwest arm. Caught 1 LMB (2lb 6oz) next to island view campsite. Then hit the main body of the lake with no success. Had a first on the water experience in seeing a DEER several hundred yards from shore in the main body. It was almost hit by another boater and turned around. I knew deer could swim but hadn't seen it in person before and wouldn't have thought it would try to cross the whole lake.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: Slow down. Drop shot is the only thing that has produced for us so far this year.

Sunday, January 26th, 2014

  • Water Temp: 48-50

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Four fishermen on two boats, launched at 8am off the water at 2pm. My partner and I headed north from the main ramp, slow day. My partner boated 2 smallmouth, best went 1lb 15oz. I had one follower and that was it. The fishermen on the other boat fish Sonoma pretty often and had a better day. They boated 7, all largemouth nothing over 2lbs. All fish from both boats were caught is dropshot.
    City: Santa Rosa

    Tips: It's a grind, if you go fish slow. Fish seem to be holding in 15-30 feet of water.